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Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator

Increasing Australia's renewable electricity generation

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Advice from the Regulator about eligibility and REC creation issues

October 2006

Number of solar water heater systems eligible for RECs at the same address

The Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 was amended on 11 September 2006. The amended Act broadens the eligibility provisions for solar water heater (SWH) installations, such that all complete eligible SWHs installed on or after 11 September 2006 can have RECs claimed for them.

For systems installed prior to 11 September 2006, the previous provisions of the Act still apply.

For further details on SWH eligibility please refer to Determining Eligibility and Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) Entitlement for Solar Water Heater and Heat Pump Water Heater Installations

Duplicate serial number procedure

New REC Registry software came into effect in June 2006. The new software handles the issue of duplicate serial numbers differently to the old software, hence the previous advice regarding the duplicate serial number procedure has been deleted from this page. If you enter a serial number that duplicates one already in the system, you will be notified by the ORER and asked to provide further information, which may involve a site audit.

June 2006

Pre-assigning RECs prior to the completion of a SWH/SGU installation

All registered agents are reminded that the owner of a solar water heater (SWH) or small generation unit (SGU) may not assign their right to create Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) under sections 23(2) or 23(C)(2) of the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 (the Act) until the installation of the SWH or SGU has been completed.

RECs created by registered agents where the assignment of the RECs occurs before the completion of the SWH/SGU installation (ie the REC assignment form is signed) will be considered by the ORER to have been improperly created. Penalties exist for the improper creation of RECs under Subdivision C of the Act.

All registered agents should ensure their REC assignment forms include a declaration that the installation of a SWH or SGU unit has been completed.

October 2004

Installation addresses

The address of the installation must be sufficient to allow an officer of the ORER to visit the installation without requesting additional information. The ORER requires the following information as part of the installation address:

• Street number, street name, town/suburb, state/territory, post code

If a street number is not available for the location, the ORER may accept the following:

• Lot number;
• Property name, and distance and direction from the nearest town/intersection/landmark also included in the address;
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) location; or
• Roadside Mail Box (RMB) number or Roadside Delivery (RSD) Number.

If none of the information listed above is available, please contact the ORER for further advice.

Where multiple solar water heaters are installed in a building the ORER requires a way to identify one system from another, besides the serial number. For example, if two installations are installed on the roof side by side, one could be nominated west and the other east. This is to allow for ease of inspection of the systems should the ORER need to audit the installations.

March 2004

Ownership of Solar Water Heaters and the creation of RECs

ORER has received legal advice indicating that there are some general principles that can be applied in determining ownership of a solar water heater at the time of installation.

Where a property developer or builder installs a solar water heater, prior to the final payment for the building and consequent exchange of legal title, the property developer or builder could be considered to be the owner of the solar water heater at installation, regardless of a later sale to the eventual owner of the property. It is assumed that the property developer or builder is the owner of the land upon which the property is being constructed until such time as title is exchanged. In this case, the ORER would accept the creation of RECs, or the assignment of the RECs to an agent, by the property developer or builder.

This situation is complicated in the instance where a separate individual owns the land and enters into a contract with a builder to develop the property. The actual contractual arrangements surrounding this arrangement would need to be examined on a case-by-case basis to determine ownership in this situation. However, it appears generally until payment has been made to the builder, the builder is the owner of the solar water heater and is therefore eligible to create, or assign the right to create, RECs.

While it does appear that in the earlier case, the eventual owner of the property does not need to be consulted on the assignment or creation of the RECs, the ORER recommends that the property developer or agent retain details of the purchaser of the property to assist in audit, should the ORER need to confirm installation of the solar water heater.

Given that the particular circumstances of any case may vary from the 'general' situation, there may be a need for parties to seek further advice from the ORER or specialist legal advice for some cases.